Educational institutions have been among Israel’s primary targets throughout the war in Gaza.
Education Above All Foundation (EAA) and Palestine’s Birzeit University are set to provide 927 full scholarships to Palestinians in the West Bank during the 2023-2024 academic year, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Tuesday.
Under the partnership, supported by the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), the students will obtain the scholarships to pursue their higher education.
The joint initiative also falls under the Qatar Scholarship Program, aimed at covering all tuition fees and academic services for the Palestinian students, according to QNA.
The latest deal between the Qatari and Palestinian entities comes under EAA’s efforts to provide the means for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to continue their education.
In 2010, EAA established the Al Fakhoora Program aimed to honour the victims of prior Israeli bombardments of Gaza.
Its name is inspired by the Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia, which Israel attacked on November 18, 2023, killing an estimated 200 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside the facility.
Those killed are among a much larger figure of at least 35,647 people Israeli occupation forces have killed in Gaza since the beginning of the genocide.
The figure, released by Gaza’s authorities on Tuesday, has likely gone up as Israel continues its war on the Strip.
On October 10, 2023, Israel destroyed EAA’s Al-Fakhoora House, adding it to dozens of destroyed educational institutions in Gaza.
The Al Fakhoora Program director, Talal Al Hothal, said the latest Qatar-led scholarship programme for students in the West Bank is a lifeline, according to QNA.
Israel’s attacks on education
Educational institutions have been among Israel’s primary targets throughout the war in Gaza.
A report released on April 16 by Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Education Cannot Wait found that more than 5,479 students and 261 teachers had been killed since the start of the war.
Around 90 percent of all school buildings have been damaged or destroyed, many of which were also used as shelters for displaced Palestinians, the report said.
Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza, the humanitarian agencies added.
Last week, Gaza’s health ministry said Israel killed more than 100 academics.
“We strongly condemn the occupation’s assassination of scientists, academics, university professors and researchers, who are a distinguished group in the Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip,” the government’s media office said in a statement on May 16.
The list includes renowned Professor Refaat Alareer, who was killed on December 6, 2023 in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza. Alareer was a prominent professor at the Islamic University of Gaza and was among the most prominent voices that exposed Israel’s brutality in the Strip.
He also co-founded the We Are Not Numbers project, which provides English writing workshops for young Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s escalation in the West Bank
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israel intensified its attacks since the beginning of the war in Gaza, carrying out killings and mass detainments.
Within nearly eight months, Israeli forces detained at least 8,815 Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestine’s news agency (Wafa) reported on May 21. Israel has also killed at least 513 Palestinians in the West Bank within the same period, according to Palestine’s health ministry.
The figure has gone up following the deadly raid in Jenin on Tuesday, where Israel killed eight people, according to Wafa.
The victims include teacher Allam Jaradat, 48, who was heading to work at Walid Abu Muwais Basic School for Boys. The figure also included 15-year-old student Mahmoud Amjad Hamadna.
The West Bank’s academic institutions have also been subjected to deadly raids since last fall.
Last September, Israeli occupation forces stormed Birzeit University campus, where they arrested several students.
In February, Israeli forces kidnapped Birzeit University student Saleh Hasan, the Student Council President, and Omar Zalloum, the Secretary of the Sports Committee in the council.
In April, the occupation forces kidnapped two female ex-detainees and Birzeit University students, Layan Kayed and Layan Nasser, from their homes in Ramallah.
Last month, Israeli forces shot and killed 20-year-old Ayser Mohammad Safi, a student at Birzeit University.
